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Monday, May 07, 2007

How to Make Juicy Grilled Chicken Breasts That Are Perfect Every Time

I've been using these techniques for years to make perfect grilled chicken breasts.

Grilling weather is my favorite time of year! If you think the chicken breasts in these photos look juicy and delicious, you're right, they were. This popular post on Kalyn's Kitchen has my five easy steps for producing perfect grilled chicken breasts that are perfect every time. Enjoy!

For years I've been marinating boneless-skinless chicken breasts and then grilling them with great results, despite the many recipes I see telling me you should only use bone-in chicken with skin on the grill. Not true! When I catered houseboat trips for over ten years, boneless chicken breasts cooked on the grill were always one of the dinners. There was never a complaint and there were many requests for the recipes.

Of course, you can't just take a chicken breast out of the package, throw it on the grill, and have it turn out moist and delicious. For good results with boneless and skinless chicken, you need to use techniques designed to keep the chicken juicy. Below are my Five Easy Steps for Juicy Grilled Chicken Breasts.

Step One: Trim the chicken breasts

Trim each chicken breast carefully to remove fat and tendons and then trim the underneath side of the chicken (tenders side) to make the entire breast close to the same thickness. If there's a long thin piece on one end, trim it off. (Of course you're saving these trimmed-off pieces in the freezer to make chicken stock.)

Step Two: Help the marinade penetrate the meat.

Carefully cut small crosswise slits down the length of each chicken breast, being careful not to cut all the way through. This will help the marinade penetrate the meat better, help the chicken cook evenly, and it also looks nice when the chicken is cooked.

Step Three: Use a marinade with oil, acidic ingredients, and flavorings.

I think marinades for chicken breasts need a generous amount of oil to keep the chicken moist, besides the acidic ingredients and flavorings that marinades commonly have. Most of my recipes have a 2:1 ratio of oil to acidic ingredients, keeping in mind that you're not eating most of that oil. I most often use olive oil, but depending on the other ingredients in the marinade, you can use peanut oil or any type of vegetable oil. I usually use lemon juice or some type of vinegar for the acidic ingredient. Other marinade ingredients that I frequently use include things like garlic, onion, shallots, ginger, herbs, mustard, curry powder, soy sauce, sesame oil, Worcestershire sauce, and chile powder.

Step Four: Marinate the chicken in refrigerator several hours or longer.

I like to marinate chicken 6-8 hours, and I often marinate chicken breasts in the refrigerator all day while I'm at work, then cook them when I get home. However, if you're pressed for time, several hours is what I'd consider the minimum amount of time to get the flavoring and moistening benefits that come from marinating.

Step Five: Judge cooking time by how the chicken looks and feels,
not just by the amount of time the recipe indicates (or use a thermometer).

Marinated chicken breasts can be cooked on a gas or charcoal barbecue grill, in a stove-top grill pan with ridges, or even in an electric utensil such as a George Foreman Grill. Whichever method you use to grill it, chicken needs to cook until it's completely cooked through, but cooking too long will make it dry and tough. I cook chicken breasts at medium-high on my well-used grill. I judge when the chicken is done by the touch and how the chicken looks. Chicken should feel firm to the touch, but not hard, when it's done. The outside of the chicken should be well-browned on both sides. You can also use an Instant-Read Meat Thermometer to check the temperature (USDA recommended temperature is 165 F for chicken breasts.) Cooking time will depend on the temperature of the chicken, how hot the grill is, the thickness of the chicken breasts, and even weather conditions if you're cooking outside.

Now, get busy and grill Some Chicken! Here are some of my favorite recipe ideas for cooking juicy chicken on the grill, hope you enjoy.

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49 comments:

These are all great tips. I am just now learning how to grill. It has been my hubby's domain up until now. I'll have to keep these great tips in mind. Thanks for sharing them and thanks for sharing your favorite recipes!Your photos are mouth watering!

Kalyn, I love BBQ, but then again I live in TN where BBQ is a way of life. The step by step you gave is awesome!

I propose to you a challenge when your growing season is at its height: cook and eat locally. I got the idea from Cookiecrumb at madeater.blogspot.com and I am now trying it for a week too. I have found that grains are not local (I had to make an exception with brown rice) that it is forcing me to eat low carb.

Sophie, didn't know that about the U.K. Wonder why? Glad it was useful for you.

Brilynn, me too, until it gets so cold that the meat is cold while it's on the grill!

Sarah, glad you liked it.

Lannae, I know Cookiecrumb and have read about her eating local experiences. Very interesting, but much easier to do in California. I'm eating produce from my garden for at least 5 months a year and shopping at our farmer's market, so I think that's pretty local, but I wouldn't be able to give up olive oil or fish, neither of which would ever be produced here.

Astrid, hi, glad you liked it.

sher, I am not really amazing, I'm glad you like the way the chicken turned out. (You are pretty amazing yourself.)

No grilling around here (apartment living has a lot less perks *g*), but I shall broil soon your delicious sounding "Grilled Curried Chicken Skewers with Spicy Peanut Sauce" (I work for peanuts!).Thanks for the always great recipes and cooking ideas, I appreciate very much the time and knowledge you invest for us.

Kat, thanks for tipping me off about the person who definitely stole the concept of this post, even if it was not word-for-word, and did indeed illegally use my photo. I will be contacting that web site, but I remove the link from your comment so it doesn't send traffic to their site.

omgness!!!!! im like 14...and like i used ur tips and stuff...and like my whole family was complimeting me!!! THANKS SOOOOO MUCH!!! i had a problem with the grill...it ran out of gas...so i had to finish em in the oven...i put them on the rack and like let the jucies drip on a pan underneath...luckily they turned out mega juicy and like rocked!!!! thanks again!

Great tips.. I was trying to grill chicken breasts for the first time and it didnt turn out well.. I will try ur suggestions for success for sure.. I have a microwave oven with grill. Do u think it will work out well in there?

Saraswathy, I haven't ever tried cooking chicken breasts in the microwave, so I'm not sure how it would work. If you don't have an outdoor grill, I'd be more likely to use the broiler of the oven or a stove-top grill pan than the microwave.

Microwave ovens work great to cook chicken. The breasts stay very juicy but do not tend to brown. You can coat with lemon juice to get some browning. However, for grilled chicken breasts you should marinate them for a couple of hours. Then microwave for about 5 minutes while the grill heats up. After that put them on the grill until browned on each side. After removing them from the grill cover with foil for 5 minutes before cutting. The micro greatly cuts down on the grill time. I have done this for years and get great compliments on my chicken breasts.

Some readers might be confused as to the term "microwave" here. You should never cook raw chicken in a microwave as it's extremely dangerous. Quite simply the chicken cannot get hot enough to kill bacteria or enterobacteria salmonella, which contrary to popular belief needs to be heated at 165 degrees plus for at LEAST 10 MINUTES. If they are refering to a toaster oven or something of the like that can have a metal rack inside then that is different and more like a full-sized oven. Though, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be careful out there to fully cook your poultry and always do it outside of radiation.-Kris

My wife loves crispy chicken skin on her grilled chicken, but when I attempt this, the teryaki sauce / skin combination usually sticks to the grill and peals off. Any tips for grilling skin-on chicken and ending up with crispy results on a reliable basis?

You can certainly pound the chicken breasts (and probably wouldn't need to cut the little slits.) I kind of like the uniform look of the chicken with slits (and I even trim them to be close to the same size) but pounding will give the same effect of the marinate penetrating better and the chicken cooking more evenly.

I don't use sugar, so I'm not going to post recommendations for brining the chicken with a mixture that uses that, but I can assure you that this chicken marinated in a mixture that includes oil is most certainly not dry, even without brining.

Lately I have cooked this recipe, but adding a small detail and would like to know your opinion about it. Indeed, after marinating the chicken breasts, and at the time of placing them on the grill, i put slices of bacon over the breasts, for two main reasons: to maintain moisture, since the steam stays inside the chicken; and to give a touch of extra seasoning.

Andrew, I'm sure that would add flavor and keep the chicken moist, but my recipes are designed to follow principles of the South Beach Diet, which limits saturated fat (therefore, no bacon.) For people who don't care about that, I bet it's tasty.

Considering what you said, i ended up not using bacon. Instead i used slices of smoked turkey breast. Indeed, the effect was great as the chicken breasts kept moist as well as better seasoned. Additionally, I put rosemary sprigs along with coal in the grate, which gave a fantastic flavor to the meal!

I took that photo years ago so I have no idea what size they were, but this will work with chicken breasts of any size. If they're really huge though, I like to cut them in half so they cook more evenly.

I googled chicken breast recipe because I needed a quick idea for Mother's Day lunch and your blog popped up. Great, simple tips! I did the 2:1 ratio of oil to acidic like ou suggested and added a bunch of other good spices. The kitchen was moist and delicious off the grill! I usually blow at grilling chicken so I'm really pleased at your lesson!

I am serving 60 ladies with warmed chicken breast, sliced (using your recipe) over fresh salad the day following cooking them. What do you recommend for warming and keeping them moist the next day? Thanks!

Michele, to be honest I think this type of thing is best served right after it's cooked. If you MUST make ahead and reheat, I'd probably do it in a slow cooker, maybe adding a tiny amount of liquid to keep the chicken moist.

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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